Huémac plays ball; he plays with the gods of the rain and the earth.The Tlaloques told him: “What will we get if we win the game?”Huémac answers: My jade, my quetzal feathers.They played ball and Huémac won.

The gods come and change what they were going to give Huémac;Instead of quetzal feathers, they give him tender ears of corn and green leavesWith the kernels inside.

Huémac did not want to receive the present: This is not what I bet!Wasn’t it jade? Didn’t I bet quetzal feathers?Take this out of here!

The gods said: Then give him jade, give him quetzal feathers.And they took their gifts, and they left carrying their treasures,And they were saying on the way: Let’s hide our jewels for four years,And they will suffer hunger and anguish.

And so much ice fell that it came to the knee.The harvests were lost and ice came in the summer.And then the heat of the sun was such that everything dried up.Trees, cacti, and all plants diedAnd even the rocks exploded with the heat of the sun.

Meditate on this, oh princes of Huexotzinco,even if you are jade,even if you are gold,you will have to goto the place of the fleshless beings.

Note on the Translation

Náhuatl is the language of the Aztecs. It was hieroglyphic, ideographic, and phonetic. Early Spanish missionaries learned this language and adapted it to the Latin alphabet. The Náhuatl cosmogony has a universal view of time that does not consider the past or the future, but an always existing present. Náhuatl thought in general is very difficult to grasp.